No More Tears
by Azerea
Summary: Padma has spent her whole life being overshadowed and unnoticed. All she wants is to be happy for once. But what if the one person that can make her happy is the last person she should want?


_Written for The Padma Patil Competition (Padma/Crabbe), round one of The Hunger Games: Fanfic Style Competition (word - fantastic, genre - angst, emotion - despair, dialogue - "what are we going to do?", and setting - Hogwarts), the All The Pairings Challenge (Padma/Crabbe), and the Seven Fics Challenge (genre - angst)._

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Padma was used to being overlooked. She and Parvati were twins but Parvati had always been the special one. Parvati was born first. Parvati did magic first. Parvati's Hogwarts letter even came first (only by a few seconds, but everyone still remembered).

Parvati was never unkind about these things. In fact she and Padma were very close. But there was always that jealousy that would sneak into Padma's mind.

At their sorting, Padma had been so happy that her name came before Parvati's, at least she could be the first to be sorted. She was happy when the hat called out Ravenclaw, it was where she belonged.

She didn't even mind when Parvati got put in Gryffindor. Parvati could be the brave sister and Padma could be the smart one.

But then it was Harry Potter's turn. Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, everyone wanted him in their house. But of course he was Gryffindor and in a matter of seconds Padma went from being the smart sister to the girl whose sister is in the same house as Harry Potter.

Even among her housemates she was an outcast. Some of the older girls had been nice at first but it hadn't lasted long. After a few weeks they had stopped speaking to Padma. She didn't know what she had done to deserve that treatment, but after a while she got used to it. She actually enjoyed being by herself. She didn't have to rely on anyone else.

On occasion there would be a moment when she started doubting herself and thinking about how pointless her life was. These moods didn't last long but while she was feeling that way she was uncontrollable. One such time was a transfiguration class with the Slytherins.

Professor McGonagall asked Padma a question and Padma answered, "I don't see why you would ask me. I'm useless, how would I know the answer? I'm seriously doubting your judgement." She then stood and started to leave the room.

"Detention, Miss Patil," Professor McGonagall said sharply, "Now return to your seat immediately or I will be forced to give you another."

Padma sat down, stunned by what she had done. The whole room was dead silent, except for one person. Crabbe, sitting in the corner of the room next to Goyle, let out a laugh. Professor McGonagall turned to him in anger. "And detention for you as well!" she said. "Is there anyone else who finds this funny?"

No one said anything and Professor McGonagall returned to the lesson as if nothing had happened. At the end of the class she told Padma and Crabbe to be at her office at eight that night.

Padma spent the rest of the day dreading the night. Not only did she have a detention due to her inability to simply answer a question, she had a detention with Crabbe. Out of all the people she could get stuck in detention with, it had to be him.

Padma didn't normally pay attention to Slytherins. They were mean and she had better things to do than worry about what they were doing. However during her forth year, after the fiasco at the Yule Ball, she had been thinking that she would never find a guy who actually enjoyed spending time in her company. It was a depressing thought and she spent most of the walk to her dormitory thinking about it. At some point she had passed Crabbe in the corridor. What he was doing there she didn't know. The Slytherin common room was nowhere near Ravenclaw's and Crabbe was rarely separated from Malfoy. Whatever the reason he was there, he completely ignored Padma. However, Padma did notice him. She noticed and realized something. Maybe there was a boy who would enjoy spending time in her company. Someone who had no other options. Someone like Crabbe.

From that point on Padma found herself thinking about him a lot. Wondering if he could possibly be thinking about her. It was impossible of course. He didn't even know she existed. But Padma could still dream, and dream she did. Those moments were some of the happiest of her life.

But no one could know. If someone found out how she felt about Crabbe, her life would be ruined, even more so than it was already. So of course she was being forced to sit through detention with him. There was no way she would be able to make it though that detention without giving something away.

As Padma was leaving the common room she nearly ran into Luna coming in. "Oh," Luna said, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Padma replied. "You must be the only one."

"Don't say that. I'm sure a lot of people are sorry."

"Not likely," Padma muttered pushing past. Due to her conversation with Luna, however brief, she was going to be late. "Fantastic, now she'll probably give me another," she said to herself perhaps a bit too loudly as several people gave her strange looks.

When she reached McGonagall's office, Padma was pleased to see that Crabbe would be even later than she was, as he had yet to arrive.

McGonagall nodded to Padma and motioned for her to take a seat. "Good evening, Miss Patil. I am afraid you will have to begin without Mr. Crabbe as he doesn't seem to plan on arriving any time soon. You will be doing lines. 'I will remain in my seat during class' fifty times."

"Yes professor," Padma replied pulling out her quill and parchment.

She hadn't completed more than five lines when Crabbe entered the room.

Professor McGonagall looked up from the paper she was grading. "Mr. Crabbe, need I remind you that your detention began at 8 o'clock, a quarter of an hour ago?"

Crabbe said something unintelligible and took a seat next to Padma.

"You will be writing, 'I will not laugh at the misfortune of others' fifty times and 'I will be on time' twenty-five."

For a long while the scratching of quills was the only sound in the room. Padma expected to be done before Crabbe since she started first and had less lines but his disregard for neat handwriting resulted in them finishing at the same time.

Professor McGonagall nodded and told them they were dismissed and they left the room together.

The silence as they walked back to their dormitories was awkward, at least for Padma. Finally Crabbe broke it. "How come you had less lines than me," he asked.

"Because I was on time," Padma answered glancing over at him quickly.

Crabbe said nothing and the awkward silence returned. As they were passing the steps to Dumbledore's office Padma noticed something lying next to the stone gargoyle. It was a round black ball covered in red speckles. "What's that?" she asked.

"Dunno," Crabbe answered walking over to it. He bent down to pick it up but the moment he touched it, it burst into flames. He yanked his head back giving a shout of pain.

Padma looked around hoping to see a teacher nearby who could do something about the fire. She knew there was a spell they'd learned at the beginning of the year to shoot water but she hadn't been paying attention in class that day. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

Crabbe, who had been sucking on his burnt fingers, said, "Water, we need water."

"I know," Padma said, exasperated. "But what's the spell?"

"Aguamenti?" Crabbe asked.

That was it, Padma remembered, but how had Crabbe remembered? She didn't have time to think about that now, however, unless she wanted the school to burn down. "Aguamenti," she said.

After a moment the fire was out. Padma walked closer to assess the damage. Strangely the corridor looked completely untouched, yet Crabbe's hands had definitely been damaged by the fire.

"What do you think that was?" she asked.

"No idea," Crabbe replied. "The black thing is gone though."

Padma realized he was right. "That's probably a good thing. I just wished we knew what it was so we could tell someone."

Crabbe agreed. "Seems like something Malfoy would like," he said.

"Malfoy?" Padma repeated. "Aren't you friends with him?"

"Yes," Crabbe said.

Neither of them said anything for a moment, then Padma said, "We should be getting back, I guess. There's nothing else we can do here."

"You're a Ravenclaw," Crabbe said as if he was just remembering. "Why don't you know what it is."

Padma met his eyes angrily. She had thought he was being nice to her, too nice. It was as if he had forgotten what house she was in, or what house he was in. But now he'd remembered and was going to make up for being nice.

Padma wanted to yell but she could not bring herself to. "I don't know how I got in Ravenclaw. I don't belong there. I don't belong here. I don't belong anywhere. And I don't know anything. That's what got me detention in the first place, remember."

"Oh yeah," Crabbe said. "I remember that."

"Of course you do. It got you detention, as well."

"Probably a good thing. Otherwise I'd be listening to one of Malfoy's stupid stories," he muttered, then realizing that he'd spoken out loud, he said, "I'd prefer that to being in the company of someone like you."

"Someone like me?" Padma asked. "You mean someone who's nobody?"

That wasn't what Crabbe had meant at all. "No someone who's not a Slytherin."

"I could be," Padma said. "I belong there just as much as Ravenclaw."

"Then why aren't you in Slytherin?"

"It wasn't my decision."

"So you'd like to be in Slytherin?"

"As much as I'd like to be anywhere." That wasn't strictly true and in a saner moment Padma wouldn't be able to believe that she had said it. But now she didn't think anything of it. "Not that you'd want me anyway. No one wants me. Not even my own house." At this point Padma started to cry. She would hate herself for this even more than saying she wouldn't mind being in Slytherin.

The look on Crabbe's face was a mixture of confusion and disgust. He had absolutely no idea what to do. On one hand someone who wasn't in Slytherin had said they would like to be in his house, no one ever did that. On the other hand she was crying, something a Slytherin wouldn't do. Finally he decided to say something slightly comforting, "I wouldn't mind you being in my house."

"Yes you would," Padma said but her tears slowed a little. That was the nicest thing anyone had said to her in a long time.

"It couldn't be that bad," Crabbe said.

Padma forced a laugh. "It could."

"No worse than anyone else."

"I suppose the Slytherins aren't that nice of people to share a house with," Padma said, her tears gone. It was strange, nothing anyone else ever said could make her feel better when she was in one of her moods (not that anyone really tried), but Crabbe's words did. Why? Why him? "I might fit right in."

"You would," Crabbe said. "Could you switch houses?"

Padma laughed, just when she was thinking that maybe Crabbe wasn't as stupid as everyone thought he was, he said something like that. "No," she answered. "I'm stuck in Ravenclaw. I appreciate the offer though."

"I'm sure everyone would accept you, as long as you think like a Slytherin."

Padma was nearly positive that they would not accept her but she didn't say so. "Maybe," was all she said. "We really need to get back to our common rooms now."

They began walking again and parted ways after a minute. "Remember Slytherin is always open," was the last thing Crabbe said.

"Of course," Padma said. And she went to bed happy that night for the first time in ages.


End file.
